This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24
Are you humming the tune yet? I hear children’s voices echoing throughout Bible camp and envision bright shining faces and clapping hands when I read these words.
In the first part of this psalm, David is rejoicing because God has saved him from the precipice of death. He says God’s steadfast love endures forever. He says to fear the Lord and trust in Him instead of princes and ordinary men. He says even though his enemies were surrounding him like a swarm of bees, God protected him.
But, read the rest of the psalm. In verse 18 David makes a twist in thought. He acknowledges God has dealt with him severely and reprimanded him. God placed him in the situation. He says –
The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. (vs.18)
The situation David was in was of God’s doing. If we are to proclaim that God is in control, it means He is in control- always. Whatever happens to us, as one Christian recording artist sings, must first pass through His hands. That is a hard concept. It is right up there with the question, “How can God allow such suffering in the world?”
But, the good news is that whatever we go through, good or bad, whether it is the best of times or the worst of times, our loving, steadfast Lord is there. He is not sitting on a cloud surrounded by angels choruses watching from afar like a Graeco-Roman god, but in the midst of it all – there to grab our hand and hold it when our world is tossed upside down, or shelter us like an eagle nestles her babies under her mighty wings, or swoop us up out of the mess we have gotten ourselves into, most likely out of disobedience. He is also there to dance with us and rejoice. He is there as we throw back our heads in laughter and are spun around in pure joy.
In all things, circumstances, and attitudes of this life – I plan to strive to be more like David and say –
This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. (vs 23)
Maybe, just maybe, my spiritual eyes will be able to look beyond my little world of the here and now to see the mighty hand of God more often and whisper in awe, “Marvelous.”
What about you?
